How do anti-abortion groups get more grotesque?

… by co-opting the language of anti-trafficking groups, of course!

Family Life International – the group which runs John Paul II Centres in Auckland, Wellington and soon Dunedin – has announced it will be bringing Abby Johnson to NZ as part of their “40 Days of Life” campaign. (Yes, 40 days as in Lent. Because the antichoice movement is overwhelmingly an extremist religious movement.)

Abby Johnson is now a professional antichoice activist. She previously directed a Planned Parenthood clinic, despite apparently not understanding what an abortion is, because according to her, she was asked to assist in one after eight years working there and seeing it happen on the ultrasound made her realise how terrible it all was.

Pity no one can find any record of that abortion ever taking place.

So Abby Johnson wrote a book and founded an organisation called “And Then There Were None”. Don’t worry, despite the fairly obvious assumption you may make, it’s not actually a group openly advocating for the murder of healthcare workers.

Instead, ATTWN treats healthcare workers who perform abortions like they’re victims of sex-trafficking – right down to not giving a fuck about what they actually want or choose. The language is actually pretty … gross.

Our goal is to provide financial, emotional, spiritual and legal support to anyone wishing to leave the abortion industry.

Because obviously The Abortion Industry is a terrifying labyrinthine creature, and no one can just, you know, hand in their resignation and get a job somewhere else.

Sidewalk counselors will be trained then periodically stationed at abortion clinics to reach out to clinic workers in a calm and inviting manner in order to establish direct personal lines of communication.

“We are very supportive of people’s right to protest, but what we saw in Bedford Square was beyond the pale,” says Clare Murphy of BPAS. “They hang around by the door and encircle women.” And 40 Days for Life’s use of cameras is particularly disturbing. According to the organisation’s leader Robert Colquhoun, photographic equipment is only used to protect the protesters, who he says have been threatened previously. But BPAS reports that the cameras have been turned on patients, in a tactic that amounts to harassment. Yesterday, 40 Days for Life tweeted to celebrate its first “turnaround”, but it’s hard to imagine that any woman who has been repulsed by such intrusive actions is making a positive choice to be a mother.

Let’s not buy the bullshit. The antichoice movement has one goal: stopping abortions. And they will do and say whatever it takes to achieve this. And if healthcare workers and pregnant people die in the process, they do not care.